No wireless option. Not as configurable as other gaming mice. Lefties get no love. Control panel software is Windows-only.

Bottom Line

With its highly accurate tracking, dedicated sniper button, and overall killer design, the Corsair Vengeance M65 is a fine addition to any first-person-shooter enthusiast's arsenal.

Perhaps more than any other genre, first-person shooters (FPS) reward accuracy and swiftly punish imprecision. Even gamers blessed with the most cat-like of reflexes know that you can only go so far without the right weaponry in your arsenal. Enter the Corsair Vengeance M65 ($69.99 list), an updated version of the excellent Corsair Vengeance M60 that retains the former’s wicked design while upping the laser sensitivity to 8,200dpi. With a dedicated sniper button that instantly lowers the DPI on the fly and on-board profile storage, it's a great choice for first person enthusiasts and our newest Editors' Choice for gaming mice.

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Design and FeaturesA contoured aluminum unibody forms the core of the M65's design. Three plastic pieces partially cover it in a way that allows its metallic frame to be slightly visible through an opening in the rear. This creates a futuristic look that nonetheless maintains an elegant simplicity that stands in contrast to the LED-covered surface seen on other mice like the Roccat Kone XTD. The M65's surface is constructed from a soft-touch plastic that doesn't attract any noticeable oil buildup after prolonged use. The pinky rest and thumb cradles, meanwhile, have a more coarse texture to provide a better grip.

Five smooth plastic glide pads on the bottom effectively minimize drag during movement, making the M65 a smooth operator with or without a mouse pad. Like many gaming mice, the M65 also sports three removable weights in its underside, so users can fine-tune its mass to match their preference. Since it's not ambidextrously designed, lefties get no love from the M65. Left-handed gamers should check out the Roccat Lua Tri-Button Gaming Mouse. The M65 is available in black, green, and the arctic white of our review unit.

Nestled between the M65's left- and right- click buttons is a solid metal, rubberized tracking wheel. With its beefy size and a blue LED light glowing beneath it, the track wheel nicely combines comfort and style. Two additional buttons beneath the track wheel, meanwhile, allow for on-the-fly DPI adjustment. A dedicated sniper button housed in the thumb cradle instantly lowers the M65's DPI to yield maximum accuracy for long-range weapons. Above the sniper button, a pair of buttons above on the crest of the thumb cradle come pre-configured as "forward" and "back" buttons.

The M65 is a wired mouse that connects via a tangle-free braided USB 3.0 chord. It doesn't offer a wireless option. However, since wired mice offer a higher level of accuracy than their wireless counterparts by providing a direct, interference-free connection to your PC, this isn't really a puzzling omission in a genre where precision reigns supreme. Moreover, its wired connection eliminates concerns over batteries and dongles, so gamers can focus entirely on more immediate concerns like blasting away foes. Corsair covers the M65 with a two-year warranty.

PerformanceArmed with a laser sensor with a maximum DPI of 8,200, the M65 can be tuned to a level of hyper-sensitivity equal to that of the Roccat Kone XTD (8,200dpi). Moreover, our testing confirmed its advertised polling rate of 1,000Hz. Combine this lag-free responsiveness with a highly precise laser sensor, and you've got a solid mouse for even the most competitive of gamers.

The M65's internal memory allows gamers to store multiple profiles onboard, though they'll first need to download the free control panel software from Corsair's website. Although the M65 works with both Windows and Mac systems, the control panel software is Windows-only (Windows XP / Vista / 7 / 8).

The dedicated sniper button is the only embellishment that distinguishes the M65 from a standard mouse. While this highlights the fact that the M65's functionality is nowhere near as acute as its precision, it's entirely consistent with its first-person shooter leanings. Were this an MMO mouse, the dearth of programmable buttons would be an entirely different story. Still, it's possible to pack loads of functionality into a mouse without cramming buttons all over the surface, as we saw with the Kone XTD's innovative EasyShift[+] feature.

I took the M65 out for a spin with a few sessions of Team Fortress 2. Although I'm still terrible at first-person shooters, the M65 quickly proved its worth. Its laser sensor yielded smooth movement on high DPI settings without exhibiting any lag. Moreover, it felt comfortable in my hand on and off the gaming grid thanks to its soft-touch texture surface and heightened profile, which I generally prefer over mice with lower profiles like the Razer Taipan.

The Corsair Vengeance M65 is a great mouse for first-person-shooter enthusiasts looking to step their game up on the gaming grid thanks to its highly accurate tracking, dedicated sniper button, and overall killer design. By improving the already excellent Vengeance M60, it's a shoo-in as our Editors' Choice for gaming mice geared toward first-person-shooter games.

Corsair Vengeance M65

Corsair Vengeance M65

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